ThaSauce: News Portal for the Video Game Music Arrangement Community

(f/ The Prophet, CarboHydroM, Red Tailed Fox and more)

November is rearing its end, and the amount of mixes hosted here is showing strongly. The material on display will easily define the quality of material out there this week, including material from The Prophet, CarboHydroM and Red Tailed Fox among others.

I can’t say that the site showed its most active presences in terms of site news this week, but still most of its activity was still set to be pretty normalised. If there’s anything worth taking note here, the deadline for submitting entries into RPGamer.com’s Splendid Performance contest has came and gone, so be sure to look out for some sharp stuff on that field over the incoming couple of weeks.

Nonetheless, site activity was still pretty high, and the picks of the week still show much potential for their audience. Let’s see what can be seen as the highlights for November 19^th-25^th.

CarboHydroM – Zelda: A Link to the Past "Unsealed"
Within the midst of mixes from the recent Dwelling of Duels Free Month, CarboHydroM uploaded his second place finisher near the end of this week, providing a 19-minute+ opus covering many themes from Zelda 3 on the SNES. I was really excited when I saw it uploaded, because in spite of some of its light production based quirks I enjoyed most of what came around compositionally, what with the themes given a strong translation to CHM’s punk rock style as well as showing enough dynamic interest in the transitions to make the medley flow. Thankfully, most of these areas have been kept intact for the audience’s amusement and the drum mixing has also been refined for the better, although at the price of the recent discovery of an MP3 size limit added to the site’s upload script. That could damage the overall quality of the tracks most especially in some of the more higher-register instrument based areas, but those who want to see some strong Zelda tunage will easily be impressed nonetheless. Very enjoyable work, I’m sure.

Cedric & Gonzo – Legend of Zelda "8 Worlds of Gloom"
I was surprised to see a lack in the Dwelling of Duels entries sent here this month, especially considering the material for the recent Free Month. But it’s here that Gonzo hosted his collaborative effort with Cedric, covering the dungeon music from the original Legend of Zelda to add towards the site. I enjoyed the amount of arrangement taken to the short theme, especially with elements from the Link’s Awakening version combined with some original melodic lines giving in some further depth. Cedric’s piano playing was nice to take in too; I was kind of hoping for some fluent transitions in and out of the heavier parts, but in concept it’s fine. The production has also improved in comparison to the DoD version; everything sounds more subtle, but there’s still some quirks relating to the few keyboard samples and over-compression on the drums. But in the long run, this is good stuff I saw from the pair of them; it’s not often that I see them partake in a DoD, but with strong ideas like what’s shown here I’m seeing some worthwhile potential.

debeerguy - Terminator 2 "Steel Mill Revival: Battle for the Future"
Kevin "Lorenzo" Sisk stepped forth with an arrangement for Terminator 2 on the NES, covering the Steel Mill music. One can say it’s his most challenging mix yet, given the source material was more SFX-based rather than music-based. Regardless, those who know the source will show some strong associations with its references granted, and for that I’m surprised at what came in. Even much of the additional percussive sounds have added to the target feel of the mix, as well as being planned out well enough to let the production values work just as much as the concept. From my point of view I thought I sensed a little bit too much general reverb on the higher-end percussion sounds, but I feel from some others they may find the concepts to be a little bit too ambitious for them to see this as “music” per se. Nonetheless, I see plenty of good switch arounds here as well as enough interest granted in the musical notation to make this track work. It may not be your cup of tea, but you should take a look into it and see what you think.

Red Tailed Fox & The Prophet – Sonic the Hedgehog 3 "Pure Black, or Marbles and Cream?"
It’s been a while since we saw Red Tailed Fox re-emerge towards the site; I especially enjoyed both variations on his Sonic 3 mix “Aquatic Pressure”, and even here this recent mix fails to disappoint. Here, this track covers the “Marble Garden Zone” BGM, complete with some strong lead sax coverage as applied by the Prophet of Mephisto. The feel to the source is generally strong all the way through, as well as holding enough creative variations in the musical progressions to make sure it has its appeal to its wide audience. The tech work is generally pretty good on both fronts, which I Feel has helped in pushing their techniques towards their limits; however I have to side with much of the comments sent in for the track already and say that the drums were a little bit weak in terms of their sound in spite of their strong arrangement. But still, this is a nice comeback from RTF and a very neat collab between him and the Prophet. If you like either of their works, it’s worth the opportunity to dive into.

Rexy – Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time "Zelda’s Nightmare"

This is one of those works that I’m more proud of, created for the final of RPGamer’s “Splendid Performance” contest. If more get hosted to VGMix next week, I might run a special feature on that. In the meantime, this interpretation of “Zelda’s Lullaby” has a darker look than what is usually expected of the source; starting out with a gentle piano intro, it soon develops into a fully textured mix that could serve as a more upbeat and dynamic incarnation, complete with additional surprise elements and references to other Zelda themes (mainly from A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening). The tech work is also shown to be a radical change than what is often expected from me; for the most part I saw it as a success alongside the general musical approach, so I’m content with it. People have in fact told me that it did get a little bit repetitive, but that’s the least of my concerns; they also think that the radical change from the source may not transition too well to their ears, but for a contest entry I think it has got its successes in its application. Remember, the results of the contest will be coming next week, so watch this space…

And as the week closes, many exciting things can be seen on the horizon. Alongside with the Splendid Performance results, the Dwelling of Duels: Mana Month listening stage will also occur this week, so be on the lookout for the material there. We may even see some further progress on any site projects, but who knows what will be able to happen.

And so, the countdown to Christmas starts here...

This has been ThaSauce's VGMix Spotlight. All opinions expressed in this article are solely those for Rexy and do not necessarily reflect the views of the site and its administration.

If you have any questions about this article, or want to point at possible entries for next week, send them to bev.wooffATgmail.com

Published on: 2005-12-04 (840 reads)

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